There’s two sides to every coin and one of the benefits of online surveys is that they can often be less expensive and faster to do. But according to my guest this week, the draw back is that up to 45% of your responses may be fraudulent. The issue of online survey credibility is a big one, but one that can be easily addressed.

A regular guest to the program, Wally Balden, joined me today to talk about online surveys and ways to either trap fraudulent or inattentive responses, or weed out the data on the back end. Wally is Director of Internet Research for Maritz Research where he is responsible for the development of online research tools and applications.

Some of those steps include employing traps at the intake questionnaire. My favorite was asking opinions about a product or service that never existed and then when someone provides their feedback on it, you know you have a ringer. Other options were including oppositely worded questions, or specific instructions within the question to only do part of it.

Great show and Wally is as smart as they come.